Horse Flats and Whoops beats the pavement any day

Saturday we met at 6AM at the split. The temperature was actually cooler than I expected, probably 55 degrees, and it was still dark.

I erroneously thought that I'd need a light, but by the time we shuttled up to the summit the trail was bathed in that soft morning light of American Fork Canyon.

While we drove up to the Summit Parking Lot, we noticed a ton of cars parked on the shoulder from the Timpanookee Campground turnoff to past the trail crossing. Probably due to several factors, the American Fork Canyon was immensely popular this Saturday.

First, the entrance was free, normally it's six bucks; Second, there was the 1000 Warriors bike ride and; Third, it was a Saturday.

We started biking up the Summit Trail and went straight through Horse Flat. At the back of Horse Flat we climbed a challenging piece of trail that some could almost clean, but at the top there are some treacherous roots that bar passage. They seem to say, "None shall pass".

After the climb we descended some fun single track which shall remain nameless until I can find the name. It had a neat little log jump. I don't jump it though, I kind of plop my front wheel down, which as you can see from the following video, is the usual way for most of the riders. I think if you got too much air your speed would preclude control and you might not make the turn that follows.



Down this trail we went for a while then we connected to the Deer Creek South Fork trail and rode the Whoops through Mexican Flats and continuing on the Deer Creek South Fork Trail to Ridge trail 157.

We stopped for a minute or two at the four-way and saw Steve. He was riding in some interesting looking pants and so Russ had to show him that he had the same pants under his pants.

Hanging out at the four-way

The climb from the four way to Chain Break is especially challenging. Today I managed to clean it as did Matt and Russ as you can see from this video...



Chain Break connects to Mill Canyon which is the trail we descended to Tibble Fork Reservoir and down the pavement to our cars.


Here's a gps reference to the ride.